I was always very clear that I would start my own venture some day. As a student at IIT-Mumbai in the early 1990s, I was witness to the opening of India's economy and the numerous opportunities that came with it. The country was changing and the idea of having a business seemed more plausible. However, first I had to complete my education. After bagging my engineering degree in computer science in 1991, I moved to Boston, US, for my masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I also realised that two things-gaining work experience and collecting funds-were essential to starting an enterprise. So I joined Merrill Lynch in 1994 and worked as a financial trader for the next five years. The experience I gained was not only instrumental in helping me understand the way a business works, but also gave me an insight into the various fundamentals associated with a company.

It was finally time to take my dream off the backburner, and in 1999, I launched my first venture, Elance, along with a friend, Rakesh Mathur. The company name was a combination of the words 'electronic' and 'freelance' and we aimed to offer a platform to freelancers to showcase their talent. The California-based company went on to become the world's largest online services marketplace. However, five years later, I decided to move to something new and more challenging.

The inspiration for my next venture came from the gadget I had been carrying in my pocket for some time: mobile phone.

Around 2004, the mobile phone boom had hit the Indian markets, and in the pre-Facebook and Whatsapp days, SMS remained the most important tool of communicating with friends on a larger scale. This was the time when smartphones were still at a nascent stage.

I realised that if I could provide a platform, which allowed mobile users to freely communicate and distribute content like jokes, with friends, I'd hit paydirt. Apart from sharing content with other users on GupShup, people would also be able to track information on banking, stocks, mutual funds, technology, automobiles, etc.

Besides, the company could use the information to understand consumer behaviour and pass it on to companies from various sectors to help them in targeted advertising.

We could know about the demographics of various users through their numbers and service providers, and this could again help local businesses to focus on advertising. Since this clause was listed in the terms and conditions, there was no case of breaching customer confidentiality.

Armed with this idea, I quit Elance around the end of 2004 and returned to India, Mumbai to be precise. By early 2005, my new venture, GupShup, was ready to be launched with a seed capital of $1 million (approx Rs 5 crore).

To raise this money I not only had to pool in all my investments, but also solicit the help of generous family members, friends and other investors. The amount mostly went into developing the software for the company and hiring five employees.

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Since GupShup's main agenda was allowing cellphone users to create and participate in communities over text messages, I was apprehensive since this concept had not been tested in India. Would it be able to take off? Would it start churning money soon enough? These questions were important, but we did not have any answers. So we decided to work on these aspects and let the results take care of themselves.

The beginning, devoid of any publicity, was slow. The first month of operations saw merely 1,000 users, but it was a small concern. In fact, this was a calculated risk on our part. Instead of spending a massive sum on promoting our brand, we chose to invest it in technology. GupShup's platform went through many changes and this cost us a substantial amount. However, I knew that as long as we offered a technologically superior set-up, the operations would run smoothly. So I relied on word of mouth publicity and, thankfully, in the initial days, the core product was received well.

By May 2005, we had grown our user base to nearly 30,000 and this provided us with a good springboard. Most of the corporate clients that we served came from the banking, financial services and insurance sectors, followed by the technology and SME sectors.

We got another shot in the arm in March 2006, when we received a funding of $10 million from an umbrella group of investors. This was important since we had not started generating any revenue after a year of starting out. In fact, we had to wait for another three years to do so and this proved to be nerve wracking. However, all aspiring entrepreneurs need to factor in this time lag before starting an enterprise. We plodded along and, in 2008-9, we posted a revenue of Rs 5 crore. Our user base also continued to grow, crossing the 10 lakh mark. From 2010 onwards, our revenue started to rise at a rate of 300-400%.

Today, the company has 150 employees and is serving 6 crore users in India. In the process, we have also served the marketing needs of over 500 big brands and 25,000 small businesses. We have emerged as India's largest mobile social messaging service, and considering the growing popularity of the smartphones, we launched our app for these devices in February this year.

Our next challenge is to broaden our base and provide a platform for buyers to meet customers directly, thereby integrating the B2C model. In terms of revenue, we are likely to cross the Rs 100 crore mark by the end of this fiscal year.